Mountain biker Georgia Gould fought for equal pay for women

FORT COLLINS — I had a wonderful talk with Fort Collins Olympian Georgia Gould about her mountain biking career and few know she has been a trailblazer for women cyclists.

She sent petitions to the UCI for equal pay and the figures she told me were startling, particularly in cyclocross, the winter sport for many mountain bikers. Gould said a Category 1 men’s winner would earn $2,300. The women’s winner would earn $250.

“When I found that out, are you seirous?” Gould told me. “This is ridiculous. A lot of pro men didn’t know this.”

I asked her if her efforts achieved equal pay.

“No,” she said. “The petition was for equal prize money in all UCI sanctioned races. I sent a copy of the petition with all signatures to all UCI committees and never got any response. But the most important thing about that whole thing was it brought to light the discrepancy – especially in cyclocross.”

Ironically, the UCI charter has a distinct passage outlawing discrimination.

“This looks like a pretty strong case of discrimination,” Gould said. “I understand men’s fields are deeper. There are more guys racing. OK, you don’t make it equal 20 places deep. But the top few people? You don’t get a discount like, ‘Oh, you’ve got (breasts). You pay less for your plane ticket.’ Or when I buy my license from the UCI, they’re not, like, ‘Oh, you’re a woman. You pay 10 percent of what the men pay.’ I train just as hard. You don’t go the same distance.

“The most important thing about that is it shed light on the issue and then the best outcome from it was a lot of promoters voluntarily took it upon themselves that, ‘Wow! That’s ridiculous. Even though we don’t have to, we’re going to make it equal for the top three.’ In fact, now, at this point, four or five years later, I’d say it’s more the exception when it’s not equal for races in the U.S.”

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